Axelrod: Trump's designation of antifa as terrorist organization will be used to target political enemies

Democratic strategist David Axelrod on Wednesday said President Trump’s plans to designate antifa, the anti-fascist political movement, as a terrorist organization marked an “inflection point” that would be used to target the leader’s political enemies. 

Axelrod said the Trump administration “will go after everyone and everything that they put under that umbrella, even though it isn’t an organization,” during an appearance on CNN’s “AC360.”

“It is a, in many ways, mythology. But it gives them, you know, a pretext to go after their political enemies,” the former Obama adviser added. 

Trump, during his state visit to the United Kingdom, wrote on Truth Social that antifa was “A SICK, DANGEROUS, RADICAL LEFT DISASTER, AS A MAJOR TERRORIST ORGANIZATION.”

“I will also be strongly recommending that those funding ANTIFA be thoroughly investigated in accordance with the highest legal standards and practices. Thank you for your attention to this matter,” the president wrote in the Wednesday post.

Axelrod said it was in the public’s best interest to take him “seriously.”

“This is going to be a major effort to try and defund any opposition in this country by doing it under this rubric of ‘antifa’ and the radical left. I think this is an inflection moment. So, it’s quite concerning,” Axelrod added.

His words come after Attorney General Pam Bondi raised eyebrows when she said Monday that the administration would “go after you if you are targeting anyone with hate speech.”

Bondi’s comments drew pushback from prominent conservatives including Megyn Kelly, Erick Erickson, Matt Walsh and Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), who noted hate speech is generally protected under the First Amendment. 

In recent days, the president has also said he would investigate George Soros’s Open Society Foundations on racketeering or corruption charges for allegedly fueling political violence.

Axelrod's comments coincide with remarks from former President Obama and David Frum, a speechwriter during former President George W. Bush’s administration, who have warned of a broader threat to free speech. 

“The suppression of Democratic Party speech is coming next,” Frum said Wednesday. 

“After years of complaining about cancel culture," Obama wrote in a statement on the social platform X, "the current administration has taken it to a new and dangerous level by routinely threatening regulatory action against media companies unless they muzzle or fire reporters and commentators it doesn’t like.”